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Time for Some Change

Ah, June. Another busy month full of promise. Summer will eventually arrive, kids will get out of school, and naked bicyclists will storm through Fremont.

As a gardener, I especially like this month. The vegetable starts will finally take off with the warmer weather, and there should be enough rain to not have to water them much. And if I am successful in following through on mulching early in June, I won’t have to worry about weeds for a while.

It’s also a great time to act on those plans to get back in shape. Early summer invites us outside and makes getting exercise a lot more pleasant. And this is important, because I’ve found that if isn’t enjoyable, I won’t stay with it for very long.

June’s long days are another thing I love about the month. And with the summer solstice come incredibly low tides which reveal a part of the shore usually beyond our reach. I vividly remember a walk at the far end of Seattle’s Golden Gardens beach one gorgeous day about 10 years ago when my children were little. We saw all kinds of unusual things, from tiny eels and shrimp to gigantic sea stars and sea cucumbers.

It was a magical day. In the years since, I’ve often visited the same spot during the lowest tide of the year, but I’ve never found as much diverse life as we did on that day. I suspect the reason may have something to do with what Kathy Fletcher tells us in Wenda Reed’s profile of her and People for Puget Sound: That our local waters and the creatures living in them are in serious trouble.

But despite feeling dismay that things are still precarious for Puget Sound, I also felt a sense of gratitude when I read the story. Thank goodness people like Kathy and organizations like People for Puget Sound are out there speaking up for the environment.

The oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico reminds us of just how important their work is. People for Puget Sound was instrumental in getting a year-round emergency response tug stationed in Neah Bay. In coming to the aid of over 40 ships in distress since 1999, it is estimated that the tug has helped prevent millions of gallons of oil from spilling into the western Straits of Juan de Fuca. This is just one example of the crucial ways the organization is working to minimize threats to the Sound.

When I spoke with Kathy recently, she listed apathy as one of People for Puget Sound’s biggest challenges. As much as people love and identify with the Sound, for the most part the general public is either unaware of or uninterested in just how threatened it is. As a result, we aren’t doing enough to help turn things around.

I plead guilty to not really doing my part. Sure, I try not to be a water hog and I don’t use pesticides or chemical fertilizers which can end up polluting the Sound. But I haven’t done much more to help protect the shores that I love to walk along or the water I enjoy sailing across.

That changed in May after I read Wenda’s story. I decided to support People for Puget Sound by becoming a member. I went to www.pugetsound.org and found that you can make an automatic monthly donation of any size, be it $5 or $50. Lots of local environmental groups, like Climate Solutions and Washington Toxics Coalition, are now set up online for ongoing donations, something I find incredibly convenient as a contributor.

So here’s my soapbox suggestion for June: Get out and enjoy the Pacific Northwest’s great outdoors this month. And then find an organization that is helping to protect what you love about our region and support it either with your time or your money, or both. (Check out www. environmentalpriorities.org for a quick local list). It’s time we stop taking critical organizations like People for Puget Sound for granted.

Marianne Scholl
Publisher & Editor

©June 2010, Caliope Publishing Company